Thank you all for the help thus far.
grryf: I downloaded and installed the UDF reader as you suggested. I am running Windows XP SP2. The installation routine suggested that Windows XP includes a UDF reader and that installing the program could make my system unstable. I continued the installation routine any way. After rebooting, Windows disables the process and says, via a pop up notification from the notification area, that enabling the process will make the system unstable. This, of course, is just as the install routine suggested in the beginning. I clicked the notification for help and was provided a link to locate an updated driver. This driver, as it turns out, is Roxio's Easy CD Creator 7.1. This is a one-hundred dollar program.
Something has changed, however, in the way that the sytem reads this CD. If I try to boot the system with the CD in the tray, the boot process never takes me to the "Logon Screen". Instead, the screen goes black just after the PC loads the drivers. There is no system activity what soever. It just sits there. I am unable, during this time, to get that CD tray to open. I can only get the tray to open during POST of the boot process. If the CD is not in the tray however, everything works as it should so I'm eliminating the drive as a cause for this problem.
I would like to think the CD wasn't closed properly.....but if I had it setup for drag and drop I assume it wouldn't close anyway.
For now, it looks as if upgrading my software is going to be my last resort for fixing this problem. I fear, however, that this isn't going to work. If I wrote the CD with version 5.0, then that version should read the CD, right? I have no reason to believe that an upgraded software package would correct this problem.
If any of you can think of anything else I might try before purchasing this new program, I would sure appreciate the information.
For some reason, I keep thinking I'm going to need a data recovery prgram for this job though. Can any of you recommend a good one that works on CD's?
Thanks,